Willem Van De Velde the Elder and Younger and the Four Days' Battle Stephen Smith Art History 431/531 Northern Baroque
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Willem van de Velde the Elder and Younger and the Four Days’ Battle Stephen Smith Art History 431/531 Northern Baroque Art 1 In the traditional hierarchy of painting genres historical themes have long been understood to hold the highest rank. It can be argued that the most successful history painter paints his or her own time. The artist will always be the most familiar with what is immediately at hand and subsequently can provide a primary source of information. In the case of the Dutch marine painter Willem van de Velde the Elder the artist was present at many of the historical events he depicted. Van de Velde worked primarily in the medium of “pen paintings,” which allowed him to make quick sketches of the marine battles he witnessed. This technique also allowed him to create extremely detailed renderings that would be much harder to realize in oil painting. His son, Willem van de Velde the Younger would achieve a greater renowned than his father and be “perceived by his contemporaries as the nation’s leading painter of seascape and shipping.”1 Living in a time of particularly eventful maritime excursions the van de Veldes took full advantage of the opportunity to capture the thrill and adventure to be found on the high seas. Van de Velde the Elder often traveled with the Dutch navy in times of conflict and produced a number of onsite masterpieces including his three section horizontal rendering of the Four Days’ Battle, which was later used as a model for his son’s paintings of the same subject. 1666 was a disastrous year for the English people. The great plague and the fire of London set the backdrop for the violent Second Anglo-Dutch War. Dutch life was beleaguered with fewer immediate problems but saw the loss of many of its major overseas holding including New Amsterdam, which was permanently renamed New York to reflect its new allegiance. Being two of the dominant sea powers at the time conflict 1 Jenny Gaschke, Turmoil and Tranquility (Greenwich and London: National Maritime Museum, 2008), 55. 2 over foreign territories was inevitable. “The friction was world-wide, but especially intense in West Africa, the Caribbean, and the East Indies.”2 Despite the fact that the hostilities of The First Anglo-Dutch War had ended over a decade before with the English victory in the Battle of Scheveningen in 1653 a new conflict was expected to break out at any time. Van de Velde the Elder was present at the last battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War and captured the drama in a pen painting showing the burning of the English ship the St. Andrew (figure 1.). The scene gives a good impression of how cramped and confusing these navel battles must have been. Oil paintings created in comfortable studios far from the action rarely reflect the chaos of battle with the same authenticity. The artist himself can be seen in the left foreground of the painting recording the incident (figure 2.). He sits calmly with pen in hand aboard a small ship called a boyer. The details are intricate and show every aspect of the artist’s vessel down to the patchwork sails and elaborate pully system that controls them. Soon after the end of the First Anglo-Dutch War “English harassment of Dutch shipping, and colonies, had reached such a pitch that that there was an all but inevitable slide toward conflict.”3 Most other European powers saw the Republic as the grieved party and both belligerents continued to amass larger navies. It was universally believed that the disciplined and united English fleet held the advantage over the Republic with its continuous internal conflicts and discord among various political factions. This presupposition seemed to be proven true at the Battle of Lowestoft, the first major conflict in the war Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch entered the battle with 103 ships, 21,613 men, and 4,869 guns. The English had only a slightly larger presence, 109 2 Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 766. 3 Ibid., 766. 3 ships, but managed a decisive victory destroying or capturing seventeen Dutch warships while losing only one of their own. This battle was painted by Hendrik van Minderhout (figure 3.) the year it occurred. Van Minderhout’s dramatic painting is a good illustration of the difference in size between the Dutch and the larger English battleships. This is a rare Dutch representation of the Battle of Lowestoft. Besides historical documentation marine paintings were also propaganda tools and Dutch “defeats were rarely…depicted.”4 There is little biographical information regarding van Minderhout’s life. He is known to have been born in Rotterdam and to have joined the Guild of St. Luke in Brugge in 1652 and the Antwerp Guild in 1672. Other than this there is speculation that he may have studied in or at least visited Italy because of the classical architectural imagery that reoccurs in his paintings. Van Minderhout’s skill as a painter is undeniable. His depiction of the Battle of Lowestoft certainly reflects the mood of the Republic after the defeat. The gray sky and brown water are somber reminders of how serious and deadly such maritime adventures could be. The Dutch lost over two thousand men in the battle and another two thousand were captured and taken prisoner. Fifteen years later, another talented painter, Adreaen van Diest (figure 4.) would depict the same scene with such a similar composition to van Minderhout’s that it would be unrealistic to deny that this version was modeled after the earlier painting. Van Diest’s sky and sea lack the gloom and somberness of the original. He intensified the drama of the scene by having what appears to be a sloop ablaze in the foreground. The overall mood of van Minderhout Battle of Lowestoft shows how contemporary depictions of historical events reflect a more accurate account of what 4 Gaschke, op. cit., 19. 4 actually occurred. After the first battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War there was serious concern in the Republic that this war might be quickly lost. Commercial stocks plunged as a result of this belief but a vigorous shipbuilding program soon revived the Dutch peoples confidence in victory. Van Diest’s painting appears somewhat romanticized compared to van Minderhout’s, which adds to the argument that the closer the historical artist is to the event the more accurate will be the scene captured. Some artists made extraordinary efforts to get as close to historical events as possible. In particular the adventurous artist Willem van de Velde the Elder was no stranger to the riggers of the high sea. After attending the Battle of Scheveningen he traveled with the Dutch navy in the defense of Copenhagen against Sweden in 1658. He was also present at the Battle of Lowestoft and every other major battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. During the Four Day’s Battle “the Dutch Admiral, Michiel de Ruyter, expressly commanded that van de Velde be escorted by Captain Govert Pietersz in his galliot to record the battle. The artist immortalized this victory in his greatest series of…sketches, which rank among the greatest drawings in the Dutch School.”5 One of these drawings is the three section horizontal work depicting a scene of a Dutch victory from the first day of the battle. The Four Days’ Battle: Damaged English Ships; Het Hof van Zeeland and the Duivenvoorde Burning; the Swiftsure, Loyal George and Seven Oaks Captured (figure 5.). This is a large drawing measuring 355 x 2,388 mm (14 x 92.5 in). The loose style perfectly captures the drama of the battle. Knowing that van de Velde drew the scene in the middle of a vicious firefight gives the work an authenticity and immediacy that is rare even in the finest Dutch maritime paintings. 5 Keyes, op. cit., 419. 5 The genre of marine painting as a distinct category separate from landscape is attributed to Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom from early in the seventeenth century. “By 1604 two hallmarks of Vroom’s style, his interest in history subjects and his penchant for precise description, were already recognized as distinguishing characteristics of his marine painting.”6 These qualities have remained a fundamental feature of the genre up until the present day. Exceptions like the marine paintings in the nineteenth century by William Turner beg the question of whether they belong in this specific category at all. Vroom established a tradition that is still very much alive today and can even be seen as a primary influence on other genres such as aviation art. The fact that Vroom chose specific historical events to illustrate is no less a contribution than his compositional choices and means of execution. Dated 1599, the artist’s Battle between Dutch Ships and Spanish Galleys off the Flemish Coast (figure 6.) clearly shows his influence on later marine painters. The depiction of an actual event, the Dutch ship Tiger ramming and sinking a Spanish galley is rendered in the exacting detail that became the norm in later paintings of sea battles. In this particular work Hendrick Vroom painted “the large Dutch warship and the foreground waves, whereas Cornelis [his son] painted the galleys and the distant landscape.”7 This partnership between father and son was not uncommon in the guild system. But such virtuosity being represented by both artists is extraordinary. Later in the seventeenth century Willem van de Velde the Elder and Younger would achieve unprecedented international fame in the genre that Vroom established.